A Switzerland-based accounting and legal services firm last month announced plans to acquire part of the law firm Walkers, a move that was soon followed by the announcement that 10 Walkers lawyers would leave the firm for a rival.
Intertrust Group announced March 5 that it will acquire 100 percent of the shares in Walkers Management Services, which provides corporate, fiduciary and company secretarial services at offices around the world, including at the Virgin Islands.
“The sale will allow Walkers to focus on its core legal business, providing outstanding legal services across its global practice groups that include investment funds, finance, corporate, tax, trusts, litigation and insolvency,” Walkers announced in a press release.
Walkers Management Services generates about $50 million annually across six offices, according to Intertrust, which stated that the financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Three days after Walkers and Intertrust announced the acquisition, Maples and Calder, another firm that focuses on financial services law, announced that it would hire seven partners and three associates from Walkers in order to expand its investment funds practice in the VI and the Cayman Islands.
“These 10 key hires will reinforce Maples’ position as a premier service provider, offering an unrivalled range of expertise in the funds arena,” Maples and Calder stated in a press release.
Nine of the ten lawyers will go to the Cayman Islands, while Tim Clipstone, a former Walkers partner, will join the VI office. The lawyers will join the offices as soon as they are able to do so “under their existing arrangements,” and will allow the firm to provide services to clients involved in the private equity market, according to Maples.
In a response to the announcement that 10 of its lawyers were switching firms, Walkers reassured clients that regardless of any departures, the firm has “an extremely deep bench and it will be business as usual for Walkers’ Investment Funds Group.”
“This move by Maples did not take us by surprise and was something we have been fully prepared for,” the firm announced. “Walkers remains in excellent shape and we are confident that clients’ legal requirements will continue to be serviced to the highest standards.”